


Valkyrie

by bielefelts



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-29 20:10:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21415963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bielefelts/pseuds/bielefelts
Summary: ...And so Mika came to Yumenosaki to meet Shu. He wasn’t planning on becoming an idol or anything-- He just wanted to see that beauty up close again, just like a kid reaching his hand out to the stars.The story on how Mika got recruited into Valkyrie.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Valkyrie

It’s a windy January day. The strong northern gusts negate the weak, mid-morning sunshine attempting to break through the cloud cover to give the frozen city below some relief. Spring, still some months away, seems like a faraway dream.

Nazuna tugs his shawl tighter around his neck as he makes his way to Yumenosaki Academy. The silky material is of high quality and soft to the touch, but too thin to properly protect against the chill; the golden tasseled ends fly up with the wind, flashing his embroidered initials. Normally he would have worn something thicker, but today he feels he doesn't really have a choice. It is a handmade gift by Shu - his _ Oshisan _ \- after all. 

While Nazuna had been showered with enough gifts from Shu over the past few months to fill up a closet, Shu still always loved making him new clothes. It seems with every occasion, every new dress he made for his real dolls, or even idea that suddenly came to him, a new outfit, a new accessory, a new song, or new choreography is also made for Nazuna to match. Whenever Nazuna had refused, it always ended with dramatics--and while Nazuna sometimes did win the battle when Shu tried to make him wear dresses, lately it feels like he’s losing the war. And he had nothing to blame but his own growing silent compliance. With a performance today, he doesn’t want to work Shu up by showing up wearing a warmer, but more "unelegent and improper" according to Shu, wool scarf despite the risk he was posing to his prized asset: his voice. He tries not to think about how it had been uncharacteristically breaking at high notes he used to hit easily...

At this point he’s just grateful that their performance is scheduled for later in the afternoon and that a few hours in the warmth of the clubroom and drinking some honey-lemon tea would hopefully mitigate any of the harm the cold air's done. Shu is likely still doing last minute preparations on their costumes, anyways. 

While Shu's skill is top notch, even to Nazuna's untrained eyes, his meticulousness with details often had Shu sewing--not to mention preparing the stage, music and basically all the aspects of their performance--until the last minute. In fact, with their growing attention and steady work they had been gaining, Shu had become exceedingly busy. Nazuna can’t remember the last time he had seen Shu without a sewing needle or pencil and paper in hand. Their New Year's stop at the fruit's parlour just a few weeks prior seems like a distant memory.

Nazuna had asked many times if he could help in some way, even if was just basic stitching or setting up some of the stage, or just asking the school's staff to help carry things to the auditorium's dressing room. But Shu had refused each time, saying Nazuna shouldn't worry himself. The flawlessness of Valkyrie's work had to remain intact after all, and other work requiring physical labor was unacceptable for him to do according to Shu. It wasn't like Nazuna was sociable or confident enough to order around the staff to set up anything in the way Shu liked either.

Being unfamiliar with idol work and not having many talents aside singing, Nazuna had been fine with Shu taking care of things at first. He wouldn't argue that despite Shu's obstinate nature and sometimes embarrassing grandiosity and pickiness, he knows what he is doing when it comes to being an idol and creating unique and spectacular work. Shu's talents and hard work he put in to polish his art are undoubtedly real. His vision is admirable and resonates with Nazuna--who, too, dislikes the rottenness he sees in Yumenosaki. The charisma and confidence he extrudes is truly one of a super-idol beyond his years, and Nazuna would be a liar if he said he wasn't honored to have been chosen to be a part of Shu's art.

But that’s it. He is simply a _ part _. A prop--a very dressed-up and perhaps most adored one, but an object nonetheless. It is times like this that Nazuna feels useless. He really is becoming just a doll on a shelf, isn’t he? Only visible to the world when his owner brings him out to play. 

Despite the never-ending flowing ribbon and lace, smooth, tick-tick spinning of gears matching their own flawless footwork, and increasing popularity and number of lives Valkyrie had been gaining, there is a growing air of stagnancy that has been slowly but surely permeating into the overly embellished and perfectly tuned world Shu is trying to nurture. Nazuna can feel it crawling into his and Shu's relationship, making it harder to force out the smile Shu exclaims as his muse. He can even feel it seeping into and rusting Nazuna's very soul.

He wants change. He wants friends. He wants a new member to join Valkyrie or the handicrafts club. He doesn’t want to be Shu's sole object of affection. He wants someone—_ anyone _ to bring a gust of fresh air into his increasingly caged existence! Even if it is more fierce than the one chilling his very bones right now.

Nazuna arrives at the school gate, passing by the bulletin board. The posters and fliers are all shaking furiously in the wind, threatening to break free of the pins and tape barely keeping them in place. He stops to stare at Valkyrie's poster for today's performance, pinned alongside them. Shu's and Nazuna's figures stand domineeringly at the center, seemingly unaffected by the wild, chaotic flapping around them. Despite being made of high grade, weatherproof cardstock, Nazuna can't help but think that if the pins were to be taken off, it would fly away and get ruined just like the rest.

He shakes his head and forcibly turns his gaze to another flier -- a recruiting poster for another unit Nazuna isn’t familiar with. Valkyrie isn't actively scouting (according to Shu), but Nazuna has his eyes open for anyone who might suit Shu's taste. That is the only way anyone would even be considered being recruited. Valkyrie is famous now after all, and many had approached asking, even begging, to join, but all had been shooed away. All worthless trash in Shu's eyes, not that Nazuna can disagree. None of them seem to understand the amazing art that Valkyrie is bestowing upon the world. They all just wanted fame and to be a part of the name. Not to mention it would take someone probably looking like Nazuna himself to be even considered. 

With a dejected huff, Nazuna turns and walks away. After showing his student card and uniform to the school’s security, he finally enters the main building. He feels the heated air immediately envelop him, warming his chilled cheeks and the temperature difference making his nose drip. He's sure his hair is a mess too and decides it's perhaps best to stop by the restroom first before heading to the handicrafts room. 

He goes in and looks at himself in the mirror. Indeed, a red nose, chafed cheeks and flyaway hair greet him in his reflection. While he knew Shu would clean him up and put makeup on him anyways for the performance, if he walks in looking like he had been in a typhoon, he would be in for an unnecessarily longer grooming session than normal, and so he tries his best to smooth it out. As Shu often tells him, it is best he takes care of appearances, even as someone as blessed with cuteness as himself. Even if he is a simple doll, he is a doll with a purpose, he tells himself. He touches the ends of his hair that rest at his shoulder. Blond, glossy from care and not a split end in sight, he can’t help but imagine what he would look like if he cut his hair short - more like a boy. Would Shu still like him then?

He shakes his head. He _ is _a boy. No matter his looks or what Shu and the others may say.

...But he also knows, as much as he hates to admit it, that alongside his voice his girly face and figure is his selling point. It’s what made Shu love him. It’s what made Valkyrie’s fans love him. It’s what made him the cute, beautiful doll with the voice of an angel, Nazuna Nito. 

It is who he is. It’s what he has to swallow down and accept.

He gives his hair a final pat and takes off his coat that now feels stifling, keeping the silk shawl on however that is wrapped around his neck like a dazzling collar, and walks out.

Heading towards the stairs that will lead him to the handicrafts room and the overly intimate embraces and barrage of “_Nito, Nito, Nito~_” that is surely waiting for him, he is also reminded that _ that _ is also something that he will have to accept. Valkyrie is him and Shu - them two, and only them two - no matter how often Nazuna wishes otherwise to God or even the pagan ones that he had suggested be their unit's name. This pure, brilliant, systematic, stifling world will be their heavenly paradise curated just for him. Always and forever. 

**Author's Note:**

> So here it is: my first planned multichap fic! I am so excited to finally be able to share this! Hope you all stick with me as I pray I stick with finishing it haha
> 
> As always, comments are lovely ♡


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